Monthly Archives: April 2011

So, I hope you’ll forgive me Monica for the tardiness of this post. Monica won my last contest/drawing and asked for a Chinese girl paper doll wearing street-fashion from China. This caused a fairly long series of internet searches during which I attempted to figure out what the heck Chinese street fashion looked like anyhow. I feel rather bad because Monica was kind enough to send me some more reference images after her first set, but by that time I had already scanned and colored this paper doll, so they will have to wait for a sequel.

So, the inspirational images for this post included these. The fluffy green skirt was inspired by a picture of a pink one. More obviously, the red coat was based on this image. And then I decided to make some obnoxiously bright pants which came from another image from flicker. Of course, since I didn’t bookmark all the images I ended up using, I don’t have as many as I used, but those are a few of my inspirational shots. There are plenty of other Marisole posts which include items that could be added to this set to expand the paper dolls wardrobe. Sweater Style has some neat boots that would go well with today’s set and the sweet version of the retro pin-up set has some short white shorts that would layer well over the black leggings and pretty much all of Modern Girl would work as well, though it’s a little bright in some respects.

As I mentioned yesterday, the blog is obviously being reformatted as we speak. I just have to ask people to be patient while I get things looking at least decent and get everything relinked and some images which were lost when I lost my formatting reloaded. Be patient with me and promise I will get it all done eventually.

Edit: I just noticed that I used an apostrophe wrong and now I am entirely embarrassed. At some point, I will fix this.

So, as some of you know, I have a tradition of breaking my site at least once a year. This is largely because I know just enough to get myself into trouble and not quite enough to get myself out of it.

Obviously, things are looking a wee-bit odd around here. As some of you know, the blog was down for a week while my good friend saved me from my own stupidity creative mistakes. No content was lost, but most of the site formatting was.

Right now, things are looking a little off and a little messy and they’ll continue to look this way until I get things fixed. The important news items are as follows:

1. The Site will update regularly as normal, though Monday’s post will probably not be up until Monday afternoon.
2. I will be working on fixing the formatting, or at least making it look like I want to look, over the next few weeks. Expect things to change a bit. Should be fun.
3. Be patient with me. I have a lot on my plate right now and dealing with the blog is the lowest priority in my life. That means it might not get done as quickly as I would like, but it will get done.

I’m trying to see this as a plus- After all, I’d been meaning to reformat everything anyway, so really this is a positive thing. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

I usually don’t go for Rose Ballgowns but I liked the grace of this costume and I really liked the sleeves. I didn’t mimic the plate exactly and I sort of invented the front of the dress since I only saw the back of the dress. I included gloves, which were needed since the sleeves of this era were so short, shoes to match and a wig styled with roses. So, it’s pretty much a whole Flora outfit.

Really this outfit happened because I have wonderful friends. As I wrote before, I have supportive friends who seem to be fairly relaxed when I say things like “Yeah, I’m thinking about buying Instyle so I have some paper doll fodder.” And they nod as though this is a normal thing to say while standing in a drug store at 10 pm on a light night chips run. In fact, sometimes they go through it with me telling me what I should draw though usually their picks are more hilarious than practical.

But when one of them told me this was the dress I should draw of a set of dresses I was looking at, I decided to go for it. It was the right period and fun, if a little fancier then what I usually draw

Two quick things before I crawl into bed and call it a night. The first is that I didn’t forget about your paper doll Monica, it’s just taking a little longer then I planned. It’ll be up on next Monday. Secondly, I have realized it might actually be possible to reformat the site to a standard blog format in a way that won’t take hours upon hours of work. So, that will be happening in the future, but this also means as I play around with format there might be times when links get broken or things seem a little odd.

I promise these things will be fixed as soon as I see them (or more likely), someone else sees them and tells me.

As for the paper doll post today, um… I’m not totally pleased with this set. I drew these paper doll pieces around the same time I did a few others and this was the last set I drew. I tend to draw paper doll series in clumps, so for a few weeks I draw a lot of Curves or I draw a lot of Marisole or Pixie and then I post them as I clean them and polish them up for the site. These groups of images are always mixed. There are some that I’m really proud of and some that I’m less so.

These guys, I’m less proud of, but I really liked the paper doll herself and wanted to post her. I’m just not a huge fan of the dresses. But maybe other people will like them more then I do. What do people think?

Obviously, I have been playing around with shiny a bit lately. I did it for the Marisole Superhero post. I have another shiny post in the early stages of work. I rather like the shiny effect, though there should be a more effective way of doing it then what I have been doing. I just don’t know what that might be at the moment.

I am really lucky to have supportive friends. When I sit around while we watch movies or hang out and draw paper dolls their reactions are usually, “That’s neat.” Rather than making fun of me for being a mid-twenties graduate student whose drawing paper dolls.

When I was in high school and through most of college and I drew paper dolls, it was a tightly kept secret I shared with only a few people. I did say I collected, but it was always- because I have since I was a child… I never wanted to confess I really did still enjoy paper dolls.

I’ve gotten over it. Maybe it’s time or maturity or something else, but I no longer get nervous telling people about my weird hobby… most of the time. It’s still not something I advertise.

So, we’re a little late today and I am sorry about that, but as I’ve said a few times around here. School comes first. Flora’s costumes are often challenging, because I like to have lots of reference images before I try to draw anything. I’m always looking for more information on the right era of costumes for the paper doll.

The ballgown on the left is based on a plate from 1812. It is one of the costumes I have wanted to draw for a long time, but it was a challenge for me. I love the yellow trim. Her promenade costume is based on a different plate from 1814. The popularity of the ruffs around the necks of costumes in this era are very interesting. I don’t know if I like the look, but I feel like I have to include them as a matter of keeping things accurate.

So, it’s nearly spring here and I thought I should post this before it becomes totally inappropriate, because of the weather. I didn’t wear a jacket today, though it was a little chilly for that I still enjoyed having the sun on my face. I don’t have a lot to say about these costumes except that they were fun to draw. I really like ice skating costumes even if I don’t ice skate much.

So, I’ve gotten a few requests for Marisole in black and white. I will not be posting every Marisole post with a black and white option. Sorry, it’s just too time consuming. However, I will continue to do them erratically. I’ve done one other black and white Marisole paper doll and here we have a second one.

Though two isn’t a huge number, it’s double the number I used to have on the blog. (That sounds so impressive when you don’t think too hard about it. Most things work better if you avoid thinking too much I find.) I hope everyone enjoys the black and white version of yesterday’s Marisole.

Sometimes people make the mistake of asking what my favorite novel. This is a really hard question to answer. Usually, I fall back on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read it as a child and return to it every few years. Each time, I am struck by the detail, the care and the complexity. It is a story full of questions of honor, betrayal, revenge and greed. Its villain is compassionate and compelling. Its hero’s are honorable, but hard. It’s a fascinating story. I recommend it to any adult or child who likes adventure tales. Really, I recommend it to anyone ever.

Also, there are pirates. And who doesn’t like pirates? Plus buried treasure and madmen and betrayal and fight scenes.

These paper doll pieces are more fantasy then reality, but that is the fun of paper dolls after all. I mean, it’s not like I actually bothered doing any real research in this case. I just had some fun with the fantasy. I mean, have you seen the Ninja side of this set? It’s not like I’ve even tried to be vaguely historically accurate.

I’ve been thinking about completely re-formating the site a lot lately… but then sanity prevails and I realize I don’t really have time. Still, I think I would like to convert it back to a more basic blog format, but then I’m worried I’d lose some of the features I like of this format… So, thoughts are ongoing. I could hand-code it, but it would take so much time and lots of trial and error. I shall have to think about my options a bit more before I decide, I think.

So, as some of you know I had a drawing last Monday and I said I would select a winner this Monday. In the end, I had 8 entries. So I just rolled an 8 sided dice, left over from other geeky hobbies I do, and came up with the number 3. That makes Monica the winner of my little drawing. Monica, please email me (paperthinpersonas (at) gmail (dot) com) with what sort of paper doll you would like.

I swear I do have some Flora things in progress, but the truth is that life hasn’t gotten less busy over the last few days. I keep meaning to sit down and ink them up, but school work and job applications and everything else has to come first. So, I’m a little behind on this, I will admit. To appease the masses, I’ve taken a page out of Liana’s book and am posting an individual paper doll. Along with my usual filler Doodle.

I have a soft spot for the late 18th century, you know… right before they started cutting off people’s heads. There’s something about the Rococo period that just feels fantasy and over the top and slightly absurd. Have you seen Liana’s wallstreet dress? A fantastic example of what I mean.

I know people aren’t huge fans of filler doodles, but the truth is the other option is not posting anything at all. And I’m not willing to do that. I try very hard not to just disappear on people.

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